I’ve got a somewhat older Sawyer Micro Squeeze myself, and I’ve really enjoyed it over the last seven years or so. Very convenient and works great! I don’t end up doing a lot of overnighters, so the kind of redundancy you’re describing has never really been necessary for me, but it seems like a good plan to at least have one backup system. For now though, the Sawyer Micro Squeeze is my go-to!
redhandfilms wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2022 3:32 pm On my recent trip, I took the Sawyer Micro Squeeze and it was perfect. The filter and squeeze bag are nice and small. When rolled up together, they're about the size of an empty cardboard toilet paper roll. On this trip I had my 3 liter leather costrel, but my base camp was a few miles from water. I did a day trip to a waterfall and back. The squeeze system was fast. It took just a few minutes to fill my costrel. Then, I did one final fill of the 24 oz bag, left the filter on it and stuck the whole thing into the expanding foraging pouch on my belt. I drank directly from this on the hike back and the 24 oz was enough to get me to camp without having to touch the water in my costrel. If you're drinking straight from it, you could put it in a sack to hide it.
As far as I'm concerned, the Micro Squeeze is a permanent piece of my kit. It goes into my modern camping/hunting survival kit as well. For the most part, for rangering, that modern kit goes from a camo zippered pouch into leather belt pouches.
That said, the old saying goes, "Two is One, One is None." In survival situations, you need redundancy. Never rely on just one method for anything vital. Three is better, so I'm reworking my kit some. I'm going to make a new needs wallet that will hold a 16 oz steel water bottle. That bottle will be packed with survival gear, including purification tablets. So, then I'll have the Sawyer Filter, a small bottle I can boil water in, or tabs if I can't get a fire going. Filter for regular use, boiling is secondary if filter breaks/is lost. In camp, if I have my full kit I have my cook pot, but the small bottle will remain on me at all times as backup. Tabs are last resort because they're consumable and will run out eventually. It think it's a good set up that could last long term if necessary.